Chapter 1

Cold Winter

"At last it's complete after months of working on it I have finally finished," she said looking at the contents of the bottle in her hand, it had a strange purple liquid inside it, she swirled it around and it changed to a deep red colour, "Now for the final ingredient," she said getting a piece of flint and putting it to her palm, in one quick motion she sliced her hand and allowed the blood to drip down her hand. She watched as a few drops hit the snow beneath her feet, the pure red blood stood out against the bright white snow, she then placed the bottle under her hand and let a few more drops go into it. The moment the blood mixed with the liquid it started to bubble, she quickly put it to her lips and smiled, she quickly drank the contents before the bubble stopped.

When the whole bottle was empty she stood perfectly still, there was a slight pause, she waited and waited but nothing still happened, she sighed, she thought she had finally done it, but her potion had failed again. He threw the bottle to the floor, it shattered into loads of little pieces, "Right then, time to start again," she said with an even bigger sigh, she got out her papyrus and charcoal and started writing down.

But before she could even finish her sentence, she dropped both and screamed in agony, she placed her hands on her head, she had never felt so much pain in her life, and it was like her brain was burning up from the inside. She could then hear a crunching sound, like a bone being snapped in half, it started and her legs, her bones snapped making her kneel to the floor; tears fell from her eyes in streams. What was happening? Her spine then started too morphed and curved, she could feel he arms and legs being to become shorter, her ears changed shape, they were now pointy, her teeth became sharp.

The pain started to dye down, she started panting, and it was similar to an animal, she closed her eyes for a little while and thought about what just happened, she was certain that it was a side effect of potion he had drunk. She reopened her eyes, and looked around, she noticed that her fire had gone out; she was starting to panic before she realized that she could see perfectly clear even in the darkness of night.

She went to rub her eyes but she didn't have hands, she looked down and noticed she was a lot closer to the floor then she was before, she looked round and noticed she could see a black tail, she was really confused, she ran towards a pound and looked into the water, she jumped back when she saw the reflection, it wasn't her normal look, it wasn't even a human reflection, the image staring back at her was a hound.

She was scared and thrilled, the potion had worked, now she could change into a hound the other hounds wouldn't bother her again, and it would keep her safer for her real mission.

Now was for the tricky part if the potion was a complete success then she would be able to transform into a human again, she focused on what her normal human self-looked like and hoped for the best. Nothing happened at first, but soon the unforgettable pain came back, this time it made her taller and back to normal, she took a deep breath as the transformation finished, she was happy to be a human again but now she couldn't see a thing, she got back to her fire and quickly placed logs onto it, she felt better when the light returned and she felt warm. She could see blood everywhere, it was obviously another side effect, every time she changed it would take a bit of her health.

But that was something she was willing to take to be able to protect herself, she put on her puffy vest and rapped her arms round herself, she had taken a big risk in drinking the potion, she didn't even know if there was an antidote, and if there wasn't she would always be a shifter for the rest of her life.

Even with her puffy vest she could still feel the cold bit of winter on her body, she needed to get a hat of some sort but she had been too busy working on the potion she had forgotten to get the resources. She was tired and hungry now, but with it being night she would have to wait till morning, she closed her eyes, when morning came she would have to get food and then set out to find them, she was here to save them from this hell. She laid down on the floor and slept, she needed all the energy she needed for the morning.

Sometime later…

Wilson woke up, winter was his least favourite time of the year, the days were too short and the nights lasted what seemed like forever, he was happy that his group had stocked up on food before the cold came. He walked out of his tent and stepped onto the cold snow, he saw Willow making a fire Wendy was torturing a rabbit, Wolfgang was trying to get into the food supply, WX-78 was cleaning, Wickerbottom was busy making more books. Woodie and Wes was out gathering wood, as Wilson breathed he could see the puffs of smoke, for some reason Wilson thought that this winter was colder than all the others.

He was still trying to find a way out of this death trap, he had been trying for too long, so long now that he was beginning to believe that this world was now his home, he hated it, he wanted to go back to where he belonged but wishing alone wasn't going to be enough.

He walked to the fire and warmed his hands,

"You're going out hunting aren't you Wilson?" Willow asked adding another log to the fire, Wilson nodded his head, even though they had plenty of food there was still a lot of people to feed in the group and that meant food went down quickly.

Wilson closed his eyes for a second, the full moon was close and it was starting to make him a little anxious, but as long as he carried on drinking his potions then there shouldn't be anything to worry about. But he couldn't stop thinking of how to cure himself, he had tried many times but every time it just ended up postponing him changing,

"Wilson!" Wendy shouted, Wilson jumped and opened his eyes, Wendy was standing in from of him, "Come on Mr Wilson, Mr Rabbit wants a friend," she said pointing to her right, Wilson looked and he could see that she had tied up the rabbit and it now looked like it was sitting down, he smiled,

"Ok Wendy, I'll get him a friend," he said, he got up and brushed the snow off his legs, Wendy squealed and jumped up and down, she hugged Wilson quickly,

"Thank you Mr Wilson," she said and ran back to the trapped rabbit.

Wilson found it amazing how a young girl could still be happy even though she didn't know what was happening around her.

He went to his tent and grabbed his backpack, it had everything he needed, axe, pickaxe, spear, traps, bait, a small amount of food, a healing salve and a Life Giving Amulet… just in case.

He was ready.

"Be careful out there we only have two more meat effigy's and they're for Wolfgang and Wes," Willow said, Wilson nodded his head he knew they were for them, that's why he was taking the amulet.

He headed out, he knew what he was going to do, there were some rabbit hole near the camp where he could plant some traps, that way when he came back from the hunting trip they would hopefully be full, he would just have to remember that one of them would be a new friend for Wendy.

He got to the snow covered savannah, this was the best place for rabbits even in the winter, he found a few rabbit holes and places the traps, he placed carrots next to them to encourage the tasty food from their holes. When all the traps were up and ready he walked away he didn't want to scare away any food ready to surface.

He was now going to look for a koalefant, it was a great way to get meat, if he was able to find one then he would have a good amount of food and a trunk to make another puffy vest, Wilson started to look for tracks, it seemed to be easier in the snow since it would make a better mark in the ground.

After just a few minutes of looking he found what he was looking for, it wasn't fresh, but as long as he was able to follow them he would be able to find his prey. The tracks kept heading further away from camp, he didn't really want to venture so far because the cold would soon get to him and he'd need to make sure that he was near a heat source, he quickly checked his backpack,

"Damn," he whispered under his breath he had forgotten to bring his heat stone, he wouldn't be able to last as long out in winter, he started to run, he needed to find the food quickly before he froze.

The tracks seemed to go on for ages but they seemed to be getting fresher which meant that he was close to the koalefant.

He was starting to slow down a little; he could feel the cold chill hitting his throat, he started to walk slowly, keeping the heat with him and making it easier to breath. He got out some roasted carrots and ate them, the cold was making him even more hungry than normal, after he had eaten two handfuls he was full.

He breathed a sigh of relief and carried onto the next track, what he didn't realize was the nest that was right next to the track, when he was kneeling next to it he saw the blue spotty egg too his right, he was thrilled since a tallbird was a good food item. He then heard the scuffling behind him, he stood perfectly still, he knew there was something behind him, and he knew what it was but he didn't want to look round, he slowly got up and started to take a few steps forward. The screeching noise behind him told him that he hadn't gone unnoticed, the tallbird had indeed saw him with its eye, that meant Wilson had to run, but before he could move his feet the tallbird attacked. Its beak hit him on the head first making him dizzy, Wilson was able to move and run a little until he reached a berry bush, he hoped that he was out of sight enough for the tallbird to walk on by.

His head was bleeding, and his sight was starting to fade, but he knew he couldn't lose consciousness now, he would most defiantly freeze to death or be eaten, he kept shaking his head hoping that he would be able to see better again.

To make matters worse was now he could hear growling, the familiar sound of a hound's growl, Wilson couldn't fight both hounds and a tallbird, he needed to get out of there and fast if he was to live. He looked through the leaves of the bush, he wanted to see if he could count how many hounds there were and where they were to plan is escape, but there weren't any in sight, he could defiantly hear growling but he couldn't find the cuprite.

He decided to trust his gut and run, he could outrun a tallbird and if the hounds didn't see him he could get away from them too,

"3, 2… 1," he whispered to himself, and ran out of the bush, he didn't bother looking behind, he just wanted to get away, what made him nervous was that he could hear the growling still it was almost like it was flowing him.

He was breathing a lot faster now, getting more tiered and this made his hunger low, the growling soon died down and that was when Wilson stopped, and quickly ate the rest of his roasted carrots, leaving one for the trip back. This trip was turning out a little worse than he had expected, and now it was getting dark, Wilson was taking just a few minutes, when a terrible pain hit his back, he then heard the screech again, he fell forward, he saw the tallbird's shadow over him, he was going to die now, and he didn't have the strength to put on his amulet. He could see his blood, it was coming from his back, and it was turning the snow red, one more hit from the tallbird's beak would end his life.

But the attack never happened, Wilson couldn't move his head to look behind, but he could hear growling, now the hounds were here to help the tallbird, this wasn't a good way to die.

But he wasn't hurt, he could just see the shadows of the creatures, the hound looked like it was attacking the tallbird, it obviously wanted to kill him itself. After a few seconds he heard the tallbird scream as it fell to the floor and died. The growling stopped and Wilson could feel the hound sniff him, he stayed perfectly still, when it had finished it ran away, he had somehow survived, he used all his might to flip onto his back, he looked up onto the sky, the sun was setting he had to hurry up, he moved himself so he could get to his backpack, he grabbed the healing salve and rubbed it onto the wound on his back and with the remaining little bit he used on his head. He felt a little better and got up, he knew it was too late to go back to the camp now, it would turn night when he tried to get there and he would have to walk in total darkness, he quickly started to look for some sort of shelter, he had the supplies he needed to build a little fire to survive the night.

Luckily he found a small cave nearby when he got in he made a fire straight away to warm himself up, he could tell the difference straight away, he sighed and curled up, today had been a close call, he would have to go back to camp first thing in the morning and heal himself up properly.

He was just about to fall asleep when he hears the growling again, he was too tired to fight now and if he put out the fire he would die. He could see the hound at the entrance of the cave, it sniffed the air, most likely looking for him, and it came in a little way, Wilson tried to hide as much as possible but without going into the darkness he couldn't do much.

The hound was only a few meters away now, it was still sniffing and then noticed him, it's eyes stared at him for a few moment and then it just sat, it poked its tongue out and started panting. Wilson looked at it curiously, this was odd behaviour for a hound, it carried on looking at Wilson, it didn't move any closer or try to attack, Wilson stood up and got his spear out, if it was tricking him then he would kill it quickly it was only one hound after all.

Wilson was right next to the beast and it was still panting, he put out his hand and the hound licked it, he was amazed, the hound then got up and took a few steps back, Wilson watched, it howled and then Wilson heard a terrifying sound, it sounded like bones breaking and skin ripping, blood splattered on the snow and the hound began to change shaped, Wilson did nothing but watch as the beast turned human.

There was no hound anymore, in its place stood a woman,

"Hi," she said before collapsing to the ground surrounded in her blood.